“Ober, maybe now’s not the time,” Nathan said, staring at Eric.

“Cheer up,” Ober said to Eric. “Your life’s only lasting another few hours-you might as well enjoy it.”

“Can you just shut up?” Eric asked, raising his voice.

“Don’t take it out on me,” Ober said, standing in the middle of the living room. “I didn’t dick over my friend.”

“Asshole,” Eric yelled, “why don’t you-”

“Ober, just shut up,” Nathan interrupted. “Both of you, relax.”

“Don’t forget what I said, though,” Ober said. “Murray Simone, King of Hair. And tell him I sent you.” When he heard a key in the front door, Ober leaped on the large blue couch and stared at Eric. “Round One. Ding. Ding.”

Ben stormed through the front door to find Ober, Nathan, and Eric on the couch. “So? What’s the explanation?” Ben said, crossing his arms.

“Ben, I know you’re mad,” Eric said. “Just let me explain.”

“Go right ahead,” Ben said. “That’s what I’m waiting for.”

“I can’t tell you if you’re pissed. You’re going to be mad at me no matter what I say.”

“Eric, even if I was in a good mood, I’m going to be mad.”

“I told you he’d made up his mind,” Eric said, turning to Nathan.

“Ben, just give him a chance,” Nathan pleaded.

“You have a chance,” Ben said, still staring down at Eric. “Just go. I’ve been waiting all day.” When Eric was silent, Ben added, “C’mon, tell me. I’ll keep an open mind.”

“Fine,” Eric said. “I just want you to know that when you told me about what happened with Rick and the Maxwell decision, I never thought about saying a word. I mean, we’ve been friends since third grade. I’d never turn you in or let anything damage our friendship. And I certainly wouldn’t write something that I thought would get you in trouble. But you have to understand the position I was in. I’ve been working at the Herald for almost five months, and I haven’t done anything but edit excerpts from the Congressional Record. The editors wanted to transfer me down to the Style section, and when the CMI thing happened, I couldn’t pass it up. I’m the low man on the totem pole, and I had to give them something. So I gave them that.”

“That’s it?” Ben asked when Eric paused. “That’s your reason? You might’ve gotten transferred to the Style section?” Ben’s voice boomed. “You tell me that there’s an explanation for your actions, and that’s what you come up with? Eric, you are a piece of shit!”

“My job was at stake.”

“So you risked my job to save yours?” Ben yelled. “You think that’s the answer to the problem?”

“You don’t get it. I wasn’t risking your job,” Eric said.

“Oh, no?” Ben asked in disbelief. “Don’t you realize what you-”

“You know there’s no way you’ll get caught,” Eric said. “They’ll never find Rick, and we won’t tell. You can’t get hurt by this.”

“Well then, today’s my lucky day,” Ben said. “Thanks, Eric! Since they’ll never find Rick, I’m off the hook. Do you have any idea why I was late getting here? It’s because for the past hour, I was getting grilled by the Marshals Office at the Court. And in case you’re totally clueless, the marshals are responsible for all Court security. They sat me down and raked me over the coals about my involvement with the CMI leak. The head of security wanted to know about my relationship with you, since his friend at the Herald said we were roommates. He said that if they find out I’m involved, I’ll be fired. They want me to take a lie detector test to prove my innocence, and they’d love nothing more than to throw me to the press and watch them rip me apart.”

“Oh, shit,” Nathan said.

“Oh, shit is right,” Ben repeated. Pointing his finger in Eric’s face, he continued, “And since it’s obvious you didn’t take a single moment to anticipate the consequences of writing that story, you should also know that every paper in the country called the Court today to find out if it was true. At this point, they won’t turn me in, but they say it’s only a matter of time before the press finds a source who’ll talk. And I don’t think it will take long before someone puts the story together with the fact that you and I are roommates.”

“All I did was write about a possibility,” Eric said.

“No. All you did was plant a seed in everyone’s mind. Since that rag you write for doesn’t give a crap about reality, they ran it. The result screws no one but me.”

“But I didn’t even give a source,” Eric said.

“IT DOESN’T MATTER!” Ben yelled. “Get your head out of your ass. Not giving a source just means it takes longer for them to investigate.”

“Listen, don’t get mad at me,” Eric said, getting up from the couch.

“Then who the hell should I be mad at?” Ben asked, throwing his hands in the air.

“Well, I’m not the one who leaked information from the Court. I hate to burst your bubble, but what you did was illegal. I didn’t make it up.”

Ben shoved Eric in the chest. “You selfish son of a-”

Nathan jumped up, knocking over the coffee table, and wedged himself between the two friends. “This is not turning into a rumble. Both of you, relax.”

Clenching his fists, Ben stepped back from Nathan. “You really are a lowlife,” he said to Eric.

“Don’t pull that with me,” Eric said, his voice racing. “You have no idea what I was going through. You always have everything handed to you. You have no idea what it’s like to struggle on your own. My editor was breathing down my ass for a source. I didn’t care, though. I never once named you! Never!”

“Then how did the Marshals Office know that I was the source for your story about Blake’s resignation?”

Eric was silent.

“What’s the matter? You don’t have an answer for that one?”

“The Blake story was different and you know it,” Eric shot back. “For CMI, I didn’t say a word. No matter what they said, I wouldn’t give them a source. My editor told me people would call me a hack. But I kept quiet.”

“Well, you’re just the best friend a guy could have. Maybe next week you can do me a real favor and slice my throat. That’ll be the greatest.”

“I’m serious,” Eric said. “I was flooded with calls today. I got calls from Newsweek, Time, USA Today, The New York Times. You name it, I got a call from it. And I could have blown your story to any one of them. I could ride this one to fame and fortune. I could write a book about the whole thing. I’d have movie deals, a syndicated column, the whole world if I blew the lid off this one. You know it’s true-”

Before Eric could finish his sentence, Ben rushed toward him and pushed him against the back wall of the room, holding him by the front of his shirt. “You say one word, and I swear I’ll rip your fucking heart out!”

“Ben, let go!” Nathan demanded as he and Ober pried him off of Eric.

Straightening his shirt, Eric said, “Listen, I understand you’re pissed, but that was good journalism. The point is, I protected your ass, and I wrote a page five story my first time out.”

“If you killed your mother, you’d make page one,” Ben screamed. “Does that mean you should do it? You didn’t blow this story open. You would’ve been clueless unless I told you. So don’t fucking act like you’re doing me any favors by not signing away the movie rights!”

Taking a deep breath, Eric said, “Ben, do you have any idea how hard this CMI thing has been on me? From the moment you told me about how Maxwell got the info, I wanted to write the story. I waited, though. I waited until all the smoke cleared, until all the papers were finished obsessing over Maxwell and the decision. I waited until all the hoopla was over. And all I ran was a small piece that tried to explain it.”

“Do you hear what you’re saying?” Ben asked, shaking his head. “Are you trying to say I should thank you for waiting a bit before you put the knife in my back? Do you have any idea how warped that logic is?”

“I don’t know why you’re so crazy. They’ll never be able to prove-”